Do-it-Yourself Crossing Guard

One thing that really baffled us when we first arrived on the island? The little neon flags situated on a few of the corners . Why on earth did we need accessories to help us cross the street, we wondered?  I know that nearby towns like Kirkland have the crosswalk flags, but outside of the Seattle area, I’ve never seen them elsewhere.

What’s even funnier are the signs with detailed instructions on how to cross the street. I think it goes something like this:

1. Make like a majorette and wave flag at the cars on your left.
2. Tentatively make your way to the middle of the street.
3. Frantically flag down cars on your right.
4. Run for your life to the other side of the street.
5.  Should you be hit, it’s not the city’s fault. Don’t even think about suing.

The whole set-up is, to say the least, slightly off-putting. Does the self-serve crossing guard system mean it’s fairly unsafe to venture across? If we don’t use them, will we likely be tagged by an oncoming Escalade or the 550 bus?

My kids, oblivious to the more ominous implications, are tickled by the flag system. Inevitably, we have to engage in START treaty-type negotiations to determine which one of them gets to hold the flag. Then they skip across, waving those neon swatches like they’re helping park a 747 – but with a lot more enthusiasm. Sometimes they even throw in a twirl or a kick or two. To my children, at least, crossing the streets on Mercer Island is just plain festive.

(Despite my flag confusion, I do love the lighted crosswalks like the one in front of Island Park where lights embedded in the pavement flash erratically. You can’t miss it -- or the kids scampering across the street. I’m sure they’re expensive, but it’s nice to have the extra alerts, especially in high kid-traffic areas.)

But as an adult, waving a flag as I crossed the street seems a little embarrassing and unnecessary – until recently. I was reading Patch in my former town of Westport and saw an article about a woman who was killed in a crosswalk on the main road. What made it worse was that she was the second person in a year to be killed in the same spot. It’s impossible to know if a flag might have helped the drivers see these pedestrians, but a little neon never hurts.

As a driver and a pedestrian, I’m more aware these days of how easy it is to have an accident. In the central business district, the streets seem particularly dark as of late. I’ve had a hard time seeing people crossing in front of my car, especially when they’re wearing black. When we’re on foot, we generally assume that drivers notice us. The fact is, they don’t always, especially when they’re on their cell phones. 

Then just this morning, I was crossing 28^th when a woman blithely cut me off as I was midway through. (Isn’t the law that cars must stop once a person steps foot in the crosswalk?) From her cozy perch inside her SUV, she didn’t even glance my way. It’s a good thing it wasn’t dark out, and that one of us (me) was paying attention. 

Maybe the flags – and the pomp and circumstance that go with them -- aren’t so silly after all.